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Installing A/C in an old church

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ed wallace
ed wallace Member Posts: 1,613
in A-C, Heat Pumps & Refrigeration
where in cambridge is this church would be great to see what they have done to it

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  • michael_15
    michael_15 Member Posts: 231
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    a warm church

    I visited a new church building on Sunday, which was absolutely beautiful.

    The building wasn't new (probably 100-200+ years old, an absolutely massive stone structure in Cambridge, MA), but the church had just poured millions of dollars into buying and renovating it. From the inside, it looked brand new, high-tech, very slick. There were even massive flat-screen TVs for those in obstructed-view seats.

    However, it was uncomfortably warm. Despite the massive dollars spent on renovation, they didn't install air conditioning.

    Now I'm not part of the church board nor do I have any input on decisions being made, but I was just curious -- are there often structural/other issues with very old, large buildings such as churches that make it prohibitively difficult to install A/C? This was a total gut rehabilitation -- heck, they even moved the front door to the other side of the building.

    -Michael
  • Empire_2
    Empire_2 Member Posts: 2,343
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    Old Church Blues

    We also just completed a renovation and an existing church where there was absolutly no room for anything, (and I mean that literally). Building is 120 yrs old and the existing R/A was way too small for the 30 ton system that they were currently running. We ended up running linear R/A custom made floor grills (2) inside the alter whch measured 15'x8.5" delivering a listed 20 ton of free air directly into the massive R/a duct in the basement. Nothing is easy and usually cost alot to make the system work and work well. Also, dont forget about the noise level of the system. Has to be somewhat quiet.
  • Al D'Ambola_2
    Al D'Ambola_2 Member Posts: 7
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    Churches

    Last year or so this article appeared in Contracting Business. Just an amazing project. You may want to look up Monsen Engineering in Farifield, NJ they did this project. Check out the article on how this project was done.
  • Al D'Ambola_2
    Al D'Ambola_2 Member Posts: 7
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    Church

    This article ran a year or so ago in Contracting Business. This was an amazing project! I have seen contractor lose there shirts on church projects.
  • Eugene Silberstein 3
    Eugene Silberstein 3 Member Posts: 1,380
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    One reason...

    One of the main reasons that contractors lose their shirts on church jobs is that they grossly oversize the system about 100% of the time.

    Think about it... What is the average height of the ceiling in a church? 30 feet? 40 feet? Too many estimators use the volume of the sapce to obtain system sizes... WOW.

    I have seen the plans for a small church in NYC and the AC was sized at nearly 100 tons... I nearly fell off my chair. I told the GC that I could do the job, but only if I could do the heat gain calculations myself. I crunched the numbers and came up with 20 tons... The pulpit and all of the parishoners remain nice and cool to this day.

    How's that for a little extra in the basket?
  • don_157
    don_157 Member Posts: 2
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    cant help

    but to be grossly oversize when you have to calculate people
    load,fresh air requirement.

    Heck lets not forget the activity level here.If they start dancing in the sprit you'll be in trouble.LOL!
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